Perhaps hundreds of Collapsed Ghouls were erupting from the tunnel. They clawed at the party, cursed spirits that wished only to inflict pain. Their hands were thick slurries of mud and sharp stone that could grasp and cut. Dee recoiled from the touch, but they came from everywhere. The walls, the floor the ceiling; faces and hands poured forth from them all.

  “Shield Summon!” Tianna cried.

  A golden shield appeared by Dee’s arm, a large circular one that floated by his side. One of the ghouls reared up like an angry bear and slammed down. The shield moved and intercepted. The ghoul crashed into it and split in half, dripping down like taffy. Golden light hovered by the others; Tianna’s ability had summoned shields for them all. They closed together, facing outwards to make a defensive circle.

  The shields had minds of their own, but there were too many of the spirits, from too many angles. Even as some of the attacks were turned away, others tore at Dee’s legs or arms. More collapsed ghouls emerged from the wall like wax from a candle. There were centuries worth of dead miners’ angry spirits.

  Arjelica roared, using her new class ability. The spirits shivered a little in fear, but they had passed the gate of death, there was little that could frighten them now. They paused for a moment, then rushed in again. Her roar was more effective against living foes.

  Witch Bolts erupted from Yuri’s staff, blasting the ghouls apart, but more flooded back. It was impossible to keep all of them away.

  “Get in closer!” Tianna cried.

  Dee grabbed Yuri and pulled her towards Tianna.

  “Shield Bubble!” Tianna cried. Their personal shields faded and her golden dome formed around them as they crowded together. Her shield dome pulsed with power and the impact of collapsed ghouls crashing down on it.

  “We’re all cosy together again,” Emizra drawled in a low voice. Dee thought back to the frog dungeon, this was too similar. Being surrounded by overwhelming foes was never fun.

  “Let me use a little crest magic,” Yuri said. She flexed her fingers.

  Dee looked out through the shield and scanned over the faces, trying to see how many stat windows popped up. There were too many to count.

  “There are too many. Maybe a hundred. They’re weak, but it’s just so many.”

  “A hundred! May the Kingfisher preserve us from unequal playing fields. We’re doomed,” Tianna wailed.

  “We need to go back or forward, get away from the walls,” Arjelica said. “These things are dumb, they only have strength in numbers.”

  “You’re right.” Tianna snapped back into focused battle-mode. “They’re ambush fighters, hiding in walls and surrounding us. We can take them easy in a better setting.”

  The tunnel behind them was filled with collapsed ghouls, crawling over each other, reaching out to the party.

  “The only way is forward,” Arjelica said.

  They moved forward, almost pushed ahead by the flood of monsters coming behind them. A whole blob of Collapsed Ghouls came after them like a living landslide.

  Shortly they came to a larger room, even larger than Dee had expected. It was a processing room. A large chamber filled with machinery, fed by tunnels, like veins flowing into a heart. This is where rock had been brought, to be crushed down to retrieve the valuable ores that would be taken up to the surface.

  Tianna dropped her shield as they moved away from the tunnel. Ghouls poured forth, randomly into the room. They had no intelligence, only anger. Close by they clawed at the heroes, but others wailed and crawled away, seeking futile vengeance.

  One wall was dominated by an immense crusher machine, built into the solid rock, like an angled cliff of metal. Raised conveyor belts led to its mouth from depositing stations. Workers had emptied minecarts onto the belts, so that rock ore could be crushed and the precious metals sent to the surface. Dee could almost feel the rock dust in the air, itching against his skin.

  “No,” Tianna whispered. She was staring at the dead machine. “It’s a boss-level threat!” she called out.

  It was not dead. After centuries of idleness, the machine was awake again. Metal Crest energy pulsed through its crushing gears and quivered through its conveyor belts. As if it could smell them the gears started, growling like a hungry beast. Huge toothed cylinders crunched against each other, strong enough to strip flesh from bone and crunch bone down into meal.

  The conveyor belts feeding the mouth also spun into action. The chamber filled with the sound and throb of need; a steady low pulse that built up into a clamorous grinding. It was hungry, it must be fed.

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  “Inferno Conundrum!” Magic roared through Yuri, her crest glowed before her. She was already spending mana to cast her crest magic. It whirled in the air, spinning up just like the teeth of the machine. Her hair and hat flowed as hot air wafted back over the party, the excess of Metal Mana in the air added a tint of super-heated metal to the smell. Dee’s nose stung with the acrid tang.

  Yuri launched her spell and the fiery symbol roared across the room. Instead of a maze, she used it like a branding iron. It slammed into the ore machine head on. The complicated pattern sunk into the metal, like the personal brand of her intricate magic.

  Stinging super-hot air rushed back from the impact, Dee had to turn his head away to breathe for a moment.

  The machine screamed. It really was alive. The whole room shuddered like the boss monster wanted to pull itself free and charge at them.

  Glowing red and white metal across the machine showed where Yuri’s magic had landed. Dee couldn’t help but wince with sympathetic pain, even though it was just a machine, a metal box really made to crush down stone.

  But the mouth. The mouth. That was the worst part.

  The mouth, that had been tearing gears, was now dripping slag metal, like a toothless grandma chowing down on cheesy pizza. Gobs of red-hot metal dripped from it, but the disfigured and molten gears kept turning. It howled again, hot air blasted over them with that acrid smell of Metal Mana. It was angry. And still hungry. It could still eat them, and to pass through that hellscape of molten metal would be even worse.

  “Spending resources should make the battle easier. Oh, by the Kingfisher’s tail-feathers, Yuri!” Tianna wailed.

  Yuri’s staff drooped. She looked disappointed and embarrassed, her blase confidence suddenly punctured. If her magic made things worse, what else did she have. Dee could see her thinking what crest to use next.

  “Yuri, we should—” he started to say, but then the floor moved and took his feet away from under him. Dee fell sideways and hit the vibrating rubber of the belt. The floor vibrated against his head like a power drill, knocking the sense out of him. He had no idea where he was for a moment.

  The whole floor was moving, the rock cracked and split. The conveyor fingers of the machine had spread, they were under the entire floor of the room. Without knowing it they had been in the grasp of the machine since entering the room. The whole space was its feeding ground. Dee felt like a fly in the parlour of an immense spider, who suddenly sees the web and realises it’s trapped. Except flies don’t think about the future and don’t imagine what happens when you get sucked through super-heated metal crushing teeth.

  Then a strong hand grabbed him and pulled him upright. Arjelica. He leant against her as his head cleared. She was as steady as a tree even though they were being dragged jerkily by the floor.

  High finesse, I guess. Finesse, I guess. Nice one.

  What was he thinking about? His head was bamboozled. Arjelica was saying something to him, but he couldn’t understand. He rubbed his head. Concentrate, they were in trouble.

  Must be a stunning attack or something.

  He fumbled with his bag, trying to reach his game book. But the whole floor was moving, his head was shaking, he was like a baby. Where were the others? He should use his stat view ability. Or maybe he should run.

  Arjelica turned his head and pointed. He followed her gesture.

  Yuri and Tianna were together, dragged to another part of the room already by the moving belts underneath them. Tianna was on her back, stunned. Yuri stood over her, wielding her staff, using it to stay balanced and standing.

  This just turned into a real mess.

  Where was Emizra? Arjelica pointed to the other side of the room. Emizra was there, knee deep in a flood of Collapsed Ghouls. They writhed around her ankles, pinning her down. And underneath her the rubbery spaghetti of belts moved, pulling her ever closer to the mouth of the machine.

  All of them were being drawn in, all the random paths ultimately led into the mouth of the machine.

  Collapsed Ghouls were erupting from the tunnel behind them, seemingly eager to reach the machine. Were they mad or feeding themselves into the machine for a purpose? Dee couldn’t make sense of it. All he knew was that they needed to get off the floor, somehow.

  Regroup first. Arjelica helped him move. Every time he stumbled, she was there, agile and strong, stopping him from falling flat on his face. Yuri and Tianna were closer. And they needed Tianna back on her feet right now.

  They made it to Yuri and Tianna. Tianna was still half stunned, her eyes glazed. This gave Dee a real kick of fear. She was the bulwark of the team, it was true. If she was down for good, they were in real trouble.

  “Damn it Yuri,” Arjelica said.

  Yuri bit her lip. There was no smugness now, just real fear and worry. She was blasting Witch Bolts at the machine and collapsed ghouls, but nothing stopped the floor dragging them ever forward to the jaws.

  Arjelica knelt and cupped Tianna’s cheek. She looked just as dazed as Dee felt. He stood there helplessly, wondering what to do.

  Arjelica took a deep breath, reached inside, and brought forth her magic. “Rousing Spring.” The Water Crest they had found in the frog dungeon.

  Magic flowed in front of her, a sparkly circle of water that smelled like a fresh spring day. It rose up above her like a watery cloud, a calm, shivering pattern of magic. Dee thought he heard music, a far-off tune heard when swimming in a mountain spring.

  A light cool breeze trickled over them as water splashed out from the crest. Healing water like the frog god’s fountain spilled over them. But this had an extra spark of energy, like plunging into snow after the dwarf sauna.

  A cold shock went down his spine; a goddess drawing a cool finger down his neck and back. More than healed, Dee’s body was awoken. He felt like he had rested for a whole week. He was alert, ready for action.

  Tianna woke immediately, and got up on her feet. She took in the situation.

  “We need to help Emi. Take out the ghouls around her, Yuri. Arjelica get over there and help her back to us. Dee, tell me the stats of the boss.”

  No argument. They all did what they were told to do.

  It was easy for Dee to stand upright now. His feet adjusted to the chaotic floor like a cat, finding the right purchase each time and pushing off with exactly the right force. This was how Arjelica moved.

  Her Water Crest is a buff spell, did she choose that or do you just get what you find? Pay attention to the battle, think later.

  His mind was so sharp now, he could count the exact number of enemies flooding around Emizra.

  This is truly amazing. Let’s see what this machine is then.